Space Case by Stuart Gibbs

Summary from Goodreads:

Like his fellow lunarnauts—otherwise known as Moonies—living on Moon Base Alpha, twelve-year-old Dashiell Gibson is famous the world over for being one of the first humans to live on the moon.
And he’s bored out of his mind. Kids aren’t allowed on the lunar surface, meaning they’re trapped inside the tiny moon base with next to nothing to occupy their time—and the only other kid Dash’s age spends all his time hooked into virtual reality games.
Then Moon Base Alpha’s top scientist turns up dead. Dash senses there’s foul play afoot, but no one believes him. Everyone agrees Dr. Holtz went onto the lunar surface without his helmet properly affixed, simple as that. But Dr. Holtz was on the verge of an important new discovery, Dash finds out, and it’s a secret that could change everything for the Moonies—a secret someone just might kill to keep…

Confession:

This is the first book by Stuart Gibbs that I have read. I’ve have many of his other books in my school library, but I’ve never read one. The kids really like them, so that was always good enough for me to purchase them. The reason I’ve read this one is that it has been nominated for my state’s children’s choice award, otherwise know as the Sasquatch Award. I always try to read as many of the nominees as I can. I could see why my students like his books so much, just after a couple of pages. The book opens with our hero Dashiell, needing to go to the bathroom. In space and on the moon this is no easy task. Dash explains in quite a bit of detail what it is really like in the first chapter. That alone will make you want to keep reading. Mr. Gibbs obviously has done his homework in what it would be like to live on the moon, from the bathrooms, to the food they eat, to how one would sleep in low gravity. All of this detail about the difficulty Dash and his family endure on the moon is nicely woven into the mystery of Dr. Holtz’s death. There are a lot of suspects, which makes Dash and his friends work really hard to solve the case. When the murderer is revealed and the reasons behind why he did it are explained it is quite the eye opener and not quite what I was expected. This is a solid science fiction mystery for the middle grades, that is also funny. There is a second book out in the series and a third one planned for next year. I look forward to reading more about Dash and his adventures on the moon.